The invention relates to a method of optimizing the presentation on a display screen of objects of a user interface which can be freely positioned and scaled by means of control elements.
It is known that computers nowadays are operated via so-called user interfaces which present the functions of the associated operating system or its applications in the form of graphical objects (windows).
Because of their user friendliness, such user interfaces have become very popular notably in the private domain. For example, in this respect reference can be made to the graphical user interface “Microsoft Windows”. But also in the technical domain, for example, generally also in the field of patient monitoring, graphical user interfaces are also frequently used, because these interfaces enable the simultaneous presentation of a plurality of objects on the display screen; for example, in the case of medical applications these objects relate to the blood pressure, the cardiac frequency or the like, and also represent graphically the variation thereof.
The user normally has the possibility of moving the objects on the surface of the display screen, to scale them and to configure the type of presentation, that is, to individually arrange a plurality of objects on the display screen. Manipulation of the object contents, that is, of the information to be displayed, however, is usually not at all possible or to a limited extent only. For example, if only the contents of a directory are to be displayed, the user automatically receives additional information in the form of the file size of the individual files. Automatic suppression of such additional information because of a limited display resource on the display screen is not possible. Consequently, the object contents and hence the information to be displayed remain the same.
The object contents also remain the same in the case of object scaling. For example, when the object is scaled down, additional scrolling lists are often provided on the side in order to enable continued viewing of the entire object contents. Automatic adaptation of the object contents, for example, in such a way that information which is less important because of the smaller representation is automatically suppressed, is not possible.
Matters are the same in the case of zooming of the object contents. Only a simple enlargement/reduction of the overall object contents by a predetermined factor then takes place. Adaptation of the object contents so that, for example, only a detail of the object contents is enlarged/reduced, is not possible.
Automatic adaptation of the user interface to a changing operating environment usually is not possible either. For example, when the computer is used as a measuring computer and the user has configured the user interface in such a manner that several measuring rows can be simultaneously displayed as objects and one of the measurements temporarily does not deliver results, only the latter is displayed as information. Automatic switching over of the display to another, available measuring row is not possible.
Granted, some user interfaces in the field of patient monitoring have facilities for limited adaptation to changing circumstances, but such user interfaces have the drawback that the user cannot individually adjust the size and position of the objects.